


Float

by glorious_clio



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-12
Updated: 2014-12-12
Packaged: 2018-03-01 05:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2761700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glorious_clio/pseuds/glorious_clio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ami takes a small break from her responsibilities. Written primarily to the song "Dress" by Sylvan Esso.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Float

 

Water - source of life.  

And taken for granted, even by Ami Mizuno.  Especially by Ami Mizuno.  

She would go to the sea, if she could, but it is midwinter. She can’t bring herself to swim outside when the snow is falling.  The saltwater of the sea does not freeze, exactly, but the moisture on the shoreline cuts like glass all the same.  It doesn’t really matter, though, she loves to swim laps in the cold water at the pool at her mother’s apartment. It’s the wet that’s important.

She left the communicator in her room. It’s heavier than you would expect sometimes.

The sharp tang of chlorine rushes her nose as she pushes the door to the women’s locker room open.  She rinses off, then hurries to the humidity of the pool room, pausing to smile at the other early morning regulars.  Ami wastes no time dropping her towel and jumps into the water, keeping her splash small.  Her skin instantly bursts into goosebumps; she treads water while she warms up.  

“Alright, Mizuno?” her neighbor, Mr. Noda, calls. He rests against the wall for a moment, taking a moment to greet her.  He swims for an hour every morning and sometimes gives Ami tips to improve her own swimming.  He also teases her about the blue hair matching the water.

He can swim one length of the Olympic sized pool in a single breath.  

“Fine!” she hears herself chirp back.  “You?”

He nods and goes back to his laps.  

Ami spits into her goggles, pushes it around with her forefinger, rinses them, and straps them onto her head.  It keeps them from fogging up. (Thanks, Mr. Noda!) Pushing against the wall with her feet, she starts slowly, feeling the knots and aches of last night’s battle wash away from her.

Usagi complains about being a superhero and a student, sometimes.  No one really knows what to say to that, because she’s right. They don’t need to elaborate.

Ami executes a turn, swimming for as long as she can without breathing. Finally, lungs bursting, she turns her head and takes a breath, timing it with her strokes.  If she swims long enough, her thoughts will float away from her, and when she gets out of the pool, she’ll scrub away her worries. She likes to imagine that the anxiety chemically bonds with the chlorine before rushing down the drains.  

  
  
  
  


Ten laps later, she’s a little winded, so she rests against the side.  Mr. Noda waves goodbye cheerfully. His hour is up.  The pool empties as people leave to make breakfast and get ready for work.  

Ami decides against more laps; she’s still tired from last night. She should have slept longer instead of coming to the pool. But she can’t be mad, her limbs are spent and she’s happy in the water.  Instead of working more, she peels off her goggles, lays back, and floats, her own thoughts coming to her in ripples.  

The cold water feels good against her tired body.  She feels very heavy, and very grateful that the water is holding her up for a bit.

She knows she should go back to the locker room, shower, get ready for school. Her thoughts eddy and swirl around, she is thinking of all she must do that day. Breathing deeply, Ami meditates with her eyes open, listening to the water rush through the filters of the pool.  A strange current of thought catches her, a sudden riptide of memories.

She remembers stories of her father’s mother, one of the famous Ama pearl divers.  He speaks of her often, with pride. Whenever he comes to see Ami, she teases a story of this grandmother from him - it is not difficult.  

 

 _You’re a woman of the sea, like your grandmother,_ he always starts. It always thrills her.

_She swam even on the coldest days when no other woman would dare. She could hold her breath for four minutes, and dive for the deepest oysters._

_She feared no creature of the deep; they treated her as one of their own._

Like a mermaid?

_Yes._

(The coldest waters, four hours a day, in nothing but a loincloth, harvesting from the sea.  

Ami has a precious pair of pearl earrings, once her grandmother’s.  She almost never wears them, only on days that are most special.)

_Once her diving party was caught unawares by a storm, and while the other girls clutched each other in the boat, your grandmother tied a rope around her waist and pulled them all to shore._

She must have been strong, Ami always says.

_The strongest. Like you, darling girl._

  
  
  
  


She doesn’t always feel strong, at least, not in the way Mako-chan and Minako are. Not the same strength of convictions as Rei, and not the strength of heart Usagi possesses.  It troubles Ami, a little bit.  If her girls were in a boat, Ami is not sure she can pull them to shore.  

She thinks about the moon, pulling the tides after it. There’s a metaphor there, but she’s too tired to do anything about it.

Ami is a strong swimmer, and she wonders if its is because of her grandmother, or because of Mercury, or a strong mixture of the two.  Blood and power and saltwater rushes through her veins. Ami’s mother tells her of baby Ami who loved her baths, of taking her to baby swim classes and learning to swim and hold her breath before she could walk.  “It was your father’s idea,” Mother concedes.  “You took to it so well.” It is why her mother chose an apartment building with a pool now.

When they first moved here, she couldn’t keep Ami away from the pool.  It was a salve, a peace offering after a divorce had left ragged edges between her parents.  Time, blue hair dye, and the pool had turned jagged edges into sea glass, harmless to the touch.

  
  
  
  
  


Ami startles herself back to reality. She pulls herself out of the pool and hurries to the locker room.  On her way to the locker room, she passes Michiru Kaioh, her new neighbor.  Ami nods and the woman lifts her chin in response.  Another swimmer with hair the color of water. Ami is too tired to consider it much farther.

Under a rush of warm water, with shampoo in her hair, she remembers again.  She would never have to pull a boat ashore by herself.  

The girls would be in the water, pulling with her.  

Satisfied, Ami finishes her shower, turning off her thoughts with the showerhead, and hurries back to her apartment.  

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Maddie for looking this over!  
> Posted for luck.  
> Coresponding playlist: http://8tracks.com/glorious-clio/beauty-of-the-water


End file.
